Wednesday, November 18, 2009

WW II in HD

I have been watching WW II in HD on the History Channel the past several evenings.

If you haven't been watching, it is much like the wars shows when we were kids, Victory at Sea, World at War and the like, only unsanitized and in color.

Using narrated letters home to personalize the combatants, the film is moving in its purity and ugliness.

My point today is not to shill for a television program, but to suggest that if you know one, talk to a veteran this Thanksgiving. My father and uncles served in WW II and when prodded wouldn't (couldn't) talk about their time in uniform. I feel I missed a lot.

Our brothers, sisters and cousins who have served in conflicts since have stories that deserve hearing. We owe it to them to listen.

6 comments:

I've not been able to watch any of those programs. Husband watches regularly. He is on active duty, and he finds the programs interesting. I, on the other hand, am reminded too much of what can happen. After three deployments to Iraq, I have so much to be thankful for that he has come home every time.

You have a great suggestion. Some of these men aren't ever asked about their time in the service.

The Colonel is glued to these programmes and wore his medals with great pride on Remembrance Sunday. My grandfather served in India in WWII and never mentioned it until he was dying, when the memories and stories flew out of him. It is a great regret that we never recorded them. He was a lovely gentle man, and I feel so sad that the legacy of his unquestioning devotion to duty is so abused today.

I never dared ask my younger brother about his two tours of duty in Vietnam. I'm ashamed to say I was a coward, afraid of what I might hear. He was about as vulnerable as anyone can imagine, standing in the doorway of helicopters as the injured were brought out of the jungle. Miraculously, he came home but not unscathed.